Tropical Rainforest

By: Malik G.

Location of tropical Rainforests

Precipitation The tropical rainforest typically has about

175-390cm in annual rainfall. The monthly precipitation varies based on the season.

TemperatureThe temperature in a rainforest rarely gets higher than 20ºC to 34ºC, and the average humidity is between 77 and 88%.

Representative Fauna Some of the animals

located in the tropical rainforest include:

Poison Arrow Frog Macaw Boa Constrictor Toucan Spider Monkey Bengal Tiger Wagler’s Pit Viper Ect.

Representative Fauna Adaptations

Color: Animals which display darker colors are more likely to be able to hide from predators.

Glow: Glow worms use bioluminescence to attract prey to their snares in the darkness of the rainforest.

Body Shape: To cope with cool rainforest temperatures Tasmanian pademelons have developed a more rounded body shape which is better at conserving heat.

Representative FloraThere are many types of plants in the tropical rainforest some of them are:

Epiphytes

Bromeliads

Mangroves

Nepenthes

Saprophytes

Lianas

Orchids, Etc.

Representative Flora Adaptations

Drip Tips: The leaves of forest trees have adapted to cope with exceptionally high rainfall. Many tropical rainforest leaves have a drip tip. It is thought that these drip tips enable rain drops to run off quickly. Plants need to shed water to avoid growth of fungus and bacteria in the warm, wet tropical rainforest.

Epiphytes: Epiphytes are plants that live on the surface of other plants, especially the trunk and branches. They grow on trees to take advantage of the sunlight in the canopy. Most are orchids, bromeliads, ferns, and Philodendron relatives. Tiny plants called epiphylls, mostly mosses, liverworts and lichens, live on the surface of leaves.

Human Interference Humans interfere in many different ways

such as: Deforestation: clearing land to be converted

to a non-forest area most likely for industrial or urban uses.

Humans cutting down plants for the use in the medical field for the production of different pain relievers and fever reducers.

Soil Soil in the tropical rainforests is very nutrient poor. The

topsoil is only 2.5 to 5 centimeters deep. The only reason plant life is so lush is because the plants store the nutrients in themselves rather than getting them from the soil. When plants decay, other growing plants tap the nutrients from the dead matter and reuse nutrients left over from that plant. This is why farmers can only use the rainforest soil for one or two years after they clear cut it, before all nutrients are stripped from the soil.

The reason soils are so infertile is because they are more than 100 million years old, and have taken a beating from the elements. After time, rain washes minerals out of the soil, leaving them more acidic and nutrient poor.